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Hands-On: Nvidia’s Project Shield Is Impressive, But Not Perfect

As a gamer, I can’t help but be wowed by Nvidia’s Project Shield. But after getting to use the Android-powered portable gaming console/controller/mini-tablet hybrid device here at CES, I see some potential pitfalls.

Project Shield is a console-style gaming controller with the buttons, triggers, dual joysticks and single directional pad you’re familiar with if you’ve ever touched an Xbox or PlayStation controller. It’s comfortable for gameplay and everything responds well for a prototype, though the joysticks and triggers feel like they could use a bit more tuning before the device heads to retail.

But Project Shield is more than a controller. It has a 5-inch 720p touchscreen built into a clam shell cover. The display is detailed, bright and really, really attractive — it’s competitive with any phone or tablet out there.

Project Shield runs what is essentially stock Android Jelly Bean, which is the best flavor of Android out there. As such, the device can run any Android game or app found in Google Play. Thanks to an HDMI port, anything that shows up on Project Shield can show up on our HDTV. It can’t, however, make a phone call, but that’s no biggie. This is, after all, a device designed with gamers in mind.

The most tremendous feature of Project Shield is its ability to stream PC games (including those found on the popular gaming service Steam) from a PC in your home, to the device’s 5-inch display. I played Need For Speed Most Wanted, streamed from a PC, and it went smoothly, with no noticeable lag or degradation in visual quality while playing. But the PC streaming only works if your PC is on the same Wi-Fi network as Project Shield (i.e. no PC streaming outside of the home) and if the streaming PC has Nvidia’s GeForce GTX graphic processor installed.

The technology used to pull of this PC streaming — the interaction between the GeForce GTX and the Nvidia Tegra 4 processor inside of Project Shield — should show up in more of Nvidia’s graphics cards in the future. If that pans out, the best case scenario here is that this PC streaming capability will grow over time. The worst case scenario is that Project Shield will be used simply as an Android gaming console and nothing else — which, if priced right, wouldn’t be a horrible.

At the moment, Nvidia isn’t saying what Project Shield will cost. This decision will be key. Google’s Nexus 7, Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Apple’s iPads have opened up an entirely new world of gaming in large part because they’re accessibly priced. Project Shield, which Nvidia says will be renamed before it officially goes on sale, offers the promise of the best features of a tablet married with console-quality gaming. It’s an attractive concept, but getting a lot of consumers to pick up a Shield instead of a tablet, or a Nintendo 3DS, will be tough if the price tag is too high.